I'm sorry, but have you all gone mad???
You claim that a "non-discriminatory" license is not detrimental to the
growth of the web, yet since most of the interesting work is coming from
an open-source direction these days, it would preclude the open-source
initiatives from implementing such items.
You claim that "patents exist", which is true, yet so do nuclear,
chemical and biological weapons.
Just because a thing exists does not mean you should bow to the pressure
to use them.
And before you ask, yes, I think they fall in the same category,
software patents are weapons of mass destruction for the mind. They
destroy creativity (Indiscriminately) and are used to enforce the will
of the people that got them first. It's impossible to defend against
them, and their area of effect is huge (Global even).
They actually have far too many similarities to be comfortable.
Anyhoo. The W3C is meant to preserve interoperability. That includes
Open-Source and even hobby projects.
Please don't turn it into another ICANN, scurrying to meet big
businesses demands...
Gav